Broken City: Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones have the right stuff

Every year, a handful of films open without being screened in advance for critics. 2012’s crop included the usual suspects: horror movies (The Devil Inside, The Apparition); unnecessary sequels (Underworld: Awakening, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance) and those that fit in both categories (Paranormal Activity 4).

This year’s only no-show to date has been the horror reboot Texas Chainsaw 3D. In its case, a lack of critical forewarning seems to have helped the bottom line. The film has earned more than US$31-million in two weeks, on a budget of just US$20-million.

Now along comes Broken City, which opens Jan. 18 without a press screening. But despite that (and the worrisome title) it seems to have all the right pieces.

There’s Academy Award winner Russell Crowe co-starring with a bad toupee to play the mayor of New York City. He may be the weakest link in the recent, Oscar-nominated Les Misérables, but at least in this one he doesn’t have to sing all of his dialogue, which should help.

Next up, two-time Oscar nominee Mark Wahlberg, slipping into his comfort zone as a shady ex-cop named Billy Taggart. (I thought he’d played a character with that name before, but the nearest I could find was Bob Lee Swagger, a shady ex-soldier in 2007’s Shooter.)

The film also stars Oscar-winner Catherine Zeta-Jones as the mayor’s possibly two-timing wife. Last year, Zeta-Jones did some singing in the poorly received Rock of Ages, and starred alongside Gerard Butler in the cornball rom-com (and poorly received) Playing for Keeps. Clearly, there’s nowhere for her to go but up.

Finally, there’s Jeffrey Wright — no Oscar love for him, but he’s turned in solid supporting work in such films as The Ides of March (as a corrupt senator), Source Code (as a quantum physicist) and Quantum of Solace (as Felix Leiter of the CIA). He elevates just about everything he’s in.

But the trailer is a confusing mish-mash of car chases, fisticuffs and overheads shots of bridges that doesn’t bode well for a coherent picture. It opens with Crowe declaring in voice-over: “There’s some wars you fight and some wars you walk away from. This is the fighting kind.”

OK, fighting, not walking; got it. But listen to Wahlberg as the trailer rolls on. “I gave him pictures and walked away.” And then to Crowe’s character: “You’re gonna walk away.” Looks like everyone’s doing a lot of walking after all.

Broken City is also one of those movies — like Fight Club, say, or Casablanca — where someone gets to say the title in their dialogue. “When I was elected mayor, this was a broken city,” Crowe crows. “Tell me things haven’t changed.” And then, because nothing makes dialogue sound more dramatic than repetition: “Tell me things haven’t changed.”

That might not be reason enough to see Broken City this weekend, but at the moment, it’s all the critics have to go on. Yes, it’s all the critics have to go on.